ABSTRACT
The human sense of smell is much maligned. It has traditionally been assumed to be a quite weak and relatively unimportant sense. In everyday life and in psychological research we tend to pay more attention to sights and sounds than to smell. Human smell capacities are often compared unfavourably with those of other animals including dogs, fish, and moths. Dogs use scents to mark and recognise their territory and to recognise each other. Salmon can recognise the stream in which they were hatched by smelling the water as it flows into the sea. Female moths can release pheromones, chemical messengers, which, although in minute quantities, can attract and stimulate a sexual partner from many miles away. Pheromones are implicated as sexual stimulants in other animals, including primates. It has also been suggested that they play a part in male dominance behaviour among some primates and in maternal attraction (cf. Russell, 1976; Wallace, 1977). In contrast the relative insensitivity of the human olfactory system is confirmed by research cited by Engen and McBurney (1964). This showed quite small changes in our perceived odour intensity despite relatively large changes in actual odour concentration.
